An Oberlin alumnus — who has asked that his name not be printed — has announced he will travel with a contingent of anti-war activists to Baghdad to stand guard at schools, hospitals and water treatment plants in an attempt to stall a likely bombing campaign by a U.S.-led coalition. As an American citizen, he faces 12 years in prison or a $1 million fine for interfering with military activity if caught.
“Our leaders are about to kill thousands of people in our name and supposedly in our interests,” the recent graduate said. “For those of us that disagree with such an action, to voice our dissent is not ‘siding with the enemy,’ it is the basic practice of democracy.”
The former Woman’s Studies major and trained E.M.T. says that like everyone else, he’s scared about possible American prosecution. But he believes that the only way to assert his beliefs is to take his case directly to the sandy streets of Iraq.
“Direct action is about learning to question and challenge a culture in which we’ve raised to conform and accept violence,” he said. “Yes, it is scary, but I am not going to live my life in fear of my own government imprisoning me for expressing disagreement with violence.”
Iraq, he declares, is not a salient threat to global security. Instead, he asserts that the United States’ zeal for conflict is of far greater concern.
“Chief UN inspector Blix himself has said he sees no justification for war,” he averred.
“Yet it is quite clear that our own country has 20,000 nuclear warheads, and has the unique distinction of being the only nation to use nuclear weapons against another,” he said. “The U.S. has far and away more weapons of mass destruction than most nations combined, and has used them in numerous coups, massacres and invasions the world over.”
The 2001 graduate will join several hundred activists from across the globe in a campaign called Human Shields. The group believes that direct action has the potential to pressure Western governments to seek an alternative to war.
Once in place, many intend to seek out and stand watch at actual bombing targets like bridges and power stations – all the while begging the spotlight of the international media and the heartstrings of similarly uneasy Western citizens.
The armada of incensed volunteers is being led by American Kenneth Nichols, who served as a marine in the Gulf War and won a medal for bravery but who has become a vociferous opponent of renewed conflict. His military experience — where he witnessed the Allied bombing of retreating Iraqi soldiers — left him disillusioned with U.S. foreign policy, he told the UK Guardian.
“Part of the reason I want to go back is to apologize to the Iraqi people for what I was doing there the first time I was in their country,” he said.
The Oberlin alum notes that tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed in the Gulf War. He believes that President Bush is playing down the massive death tolls that a new war might incur.
“Bush hides mass violence through terms like ‘regime shift’ and ‘topple Saddam,’” he said. “One could easily forget that in the last Gulf war over 100,000 Iraqi people died. The UN estimates over a million Iraqi refugees and many dead as a result of this war.”
“The quick drive towards war,” he added, “prevents a democratic process of discussing what we see as our collective priorities and dangers facing us.”
It is unclear exactly when, or from where, the convoy of protesters will arrive in Iraq.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, declared in mid-January that ‘Human Shields’ will face prosecution as war criminals if captured. They will not, he said, prevent an attack.